12/27/2011

12/23/2011

Some things i've noticed today while playing TOR:- my computer plays the game, encounters little lag, but chugs.. I need an upgrade to my pc

- I love crew skills and sending my companions out on missions while i'm doing other things (handing in quests, organizing); its like a little mini game and very satisfying

- I panic when my sniper is overwhelmed by melee enemies... dunno if this is my class..

- I like the idea of a lightning magic caster.. but I don't do as much damage as i'd like.. maybe its the drawback when you can heal as well

- why can't I craft myself? I'm too good to sully my own hands with crafting!

- I miss public quests; even with Heroic areas, people don't really group or work together.. i'd really like some better gear

- Sith Sorcerer at lvl 14, while my Sniper is lvl 12..

- Slicing (stealing & thievery it seems), is really cool; getting stuff for my future ship; though Cybertech (the making of modifications for equipment) isn't that interesting b/c not many gear can be modded so farIts a bit hard to see, but I looooove Biochem.. a REUSEABLE health pack!BUT. You can only use it IF you have the Biochem skill...Totally didn't read that part :(

Had my bro run my Sith Inquisitor through the two Heroic instances.. the loot was good, but not outstanding. The cutscenes when handing in each quest makes you feel like you're part of something really important. Its a double-bladed sword b/c it makes me think that there is something special I may be missing out on if I don't do the heroic instances. It was unfortunately not the case and just some blue loot. I'm guessing at higher levels, these heroic quests will be chained and lead to better rewards.

Got my first follower, a tank, which I can equip with gear. I love that; the ability to equip my companion. I got to customize him too by picking a custom skin for him... unfortunately.. I picked red and the game gave me green instead. RED MEANS STOP! I guess alot of people will pick red anyways... so my guy will still be unique.

I found my Inquisitor would run out of mana/Force after fighting 2-3 enemies at a time.. so when I picked my advanced class of Sorcerer, I was surprised that somehow my mana/Force had increased 5fold. So it was a bit disappointing when I realized I may have wasted my initial talent point in getting 50 more force (can't find the screen/area that tells me what my total force was).

Travelled to and got lost in the capital city of Kaas City. An initial quest sends you to each corner so you know where certain things are (cantina, vendors, trainers etc).

Picked up crew skills of bioanalysis, biochem and diplomacy. My tank failed at his diplomacy quest, but brought back some nice biological compounds that I used to make medpacs. Reverse engineered one (to get mats back and to get something special).. just got mats back.. dunno if i want to spend the time to reverse engineer it. BUT this is the best time in the game: when you don't know whether reverse engineering the medpacs will yield something special. Most people don't know that answer without them trying it!

I found.. that once you left the starter planet, there was very little direction as to what you're supposed to do and where you're supposed to be. I knew I had to get to my Sith Lord in the capital city.. but there was a space station, a town and a heroic area between there. I got so lost, I just took a speeder to the capital city when I hit the heroic area b/c it was too dangerous there!

He's supposed to be evil but is nice to mostly everyone. He normally doesn't provoke people, but does lose his anger and kills without thought. He's supposed to be on the Empires side... but actively does things that undermines it (ie. telling a brainwashed jedi that its a trap).

I can only imagine he does this because the Sith treats him badly, always calling him a slave. What they don't know is while one hand is entended in friendship, the hand behind his back holds a dagger.

The game at first seems pretty linear and doesn't reward you for exploring; I decided to prove them wrong and investigated an elevator in the dig site of Korriban. As it climbed, I was disappointed to not see any people on the platform, but THEN excited to see an openable chest. Inside the chest, a magic item. Nice.

When you "hearth" in TOR, you actually pick from any save point that you've located in the area. VERY useful. No longer do you have to go to the original 'inn' to save.

An acolyte was spared force lightning interrogation with kind words.

Somehow got Lightside points by sabotaging the research of a Sith lord.

This Inquisitor helps everyone.. even if the task can be considered 'evil'. Because of his past, he'll normally try to minimize any pain inflicted on others.

Realized mid boss-battle that this was a Heroic quest requiring more than one member and saved myself by putting a medpac in my hotbar. Ressed a player that was trying to run in and out of the instance instead of getting help.

Helped a new player discover the way to collect artifacts is by right-clicking on them.

My Sith Overseer has it in for me; so while his pet sith apprentice is sent to the library in the next room to translate a manuscript, I'm sent to a deathtrap. Even when I bring the holocron back to him, he insults me, suggesting that I stole it from somewhere else.

My brother picked the game up for me while I was at work (thank you thank you).

Came home.. took an hour to install the game; the problem stemmed while talking to my girlfriend on msn, RIGHT when I pressed enter to send a message to her, the pop-up screen came up telling me to enter disc 2. By pressing enter, it made the pc think I just put the disc in and it forever reason couldn't proceed further. Had to turn off the pc fully.

No problems making my TOR account.

Tried to log into the Launcher... annnd it kept giving me an error that I wasn't in a registered country... I know some Americans don't like us, but come'on we have Canadian bacon! 2 beavers are better than one!

When I finally got that working (somehow), it went to the opening trailer, which i've seen a few times, so I pressed the Escape button.. wrong move. The game crashed.

Ok. Lets reload, but no skipping the opening cutscene.

Crashed before it even got there.

Crash.Crash.Crash.Crash.Crash.Crash.Crash.

GRRRRRRRRRRR

My skin was turning the same color as the pureblood Sith.

Ok. Canyourunit.com

Tested it... and its all the way to the right. Thats a good thing.

Run as administrator?Crash.

Repair button/function?none.Crash.

Turn off anti-virus temporarily?Crash. Crash.

Turn off need for pc to notify when doing updates?Crash.Crash.Crash.

Install newest version of Quicktime?Requires a restart...ok....About.. to .. crash..wait!EULA and Terms of Service in the launcher.. well thats new.Crash?nooooooo...

And thats how you fix a crashing Launcher!

Oh wait... there is my server...

Annnnnd i'm in queue... with 990 people infront of me. WoW

Over an hour later i'm still in queue, but I eventually get in, get ALL my names for my characters with no funny spelling (actually, I won't make a character with an altered name). Happiness meter is filling up.

12/18/2011

Normally MTGMintCards.com is pretty good with their shipping to Canada. Normally only 1 week, even though they say 1-2.. but come Monday, it'll be going into 3 weeks.. hoping it comes before Christmas..Got to try a bit of TOR on my brother's pc today. Not bad... saved 2 names which is one of the most important things when playing any game.

Love the cut-scenes whenever I talk to npcs and hearing my voice when I choose my dialogue. Looking forward to playing on Tuesday when it releases.

12/14/2011

Once again, will be joining the hordes (if i can get two copies) on the 20th to play TOR, had a question for those currently or soon to be playing:

1. The specializations(say Sith Juggernaut and Marauder); is this a one time only choice and you can't change your choice, or is it similar to the soul system of Rift, where you can easily switch souls?

12/13/2011

Money at the beginning of Skyrim is a bit hard to come by, even if you used my Halted-Stream transmute trick. I think the most important thing is to get a base of operations that is in town and not part of an actual guild. Sure the Assassin's Guild or the Mage Guild has alot of amenities, a house in town will generally have a blacksmith or vendors in convenient proximity.

Purchase-able houses are only found in the major towns, so Whiterun, Riften, Windhelm, Solitude and Morkath. Get that house. Once you get that house, furnish it a bit so that you get a few more containers. Open them, empty them, and use one for:- craftable mats including ore, ingots, hides, leathers, grand/greater soul gems- another one for ingredients- useable weapons- stuff you want to enchant- stuff you need to sell (but don't have the time)

Making money in Skyrim, is all about inventory management. Even with a follower, its a bit hard to just loot everything. And then there are 3 ways to loot:1. Loot everything- fast in the sense that you'll fill up faster, but slower in that you'll be taking much more time completing quests2. Loot things with the most face value- steel chest pieces.. have a weight of 30 but sells for only 275... so about 9 gold per weight3. Loot things with the best weight to value ratio- a scroll of fireball has a weight of 0.5 but sells for over 200, so like a 400 gold per weight

There are a few ways to increase your effectiveness when making money:- put point into stamina which will increase carry weight by 5- use the Steed Stone which increases your carry weight by 100- get 50 skill in Pickpocketing, which has a perk that increases carry weight by 50- get 50 skill in Speech to get the perk which allows you to sell any item to any merchant- enchant your gear/get gear that increases carry weight

Talking about Enchanting, I reached 100 in Enchanting on Sunday and with the perk that allows 2 enchantments at one time, my power level jumped! I was able to not only provide enough resistances to take the risky Apprentice Stone (100% increased magicka regen, 100% more damage FROM spells), I decreased the costs of Destruction spells to the point that I could cast 5 times as many spells.

Having troubles with Giants? Double enchant your follower and prep your maniacal laughter when you watch them cut a Giant down in 5 seconds.

How do you increase your Enchanting?First: Ensure you have selected the Mage Stone. For faster results, sleep in a bed for a Rested bonus.Whenever you're at a general trader npc, buy all their petty and lesser soul gems.Once you have about 30 soul gems, go to either the rivers of Whiterun area or Winterhold sea area. The Whiterun rivers have mudcrabs which are easy targets, while the sea area of Winterhold(or even Dawnstar) has Horkers (think: Walrus).Keep capturing souls until you get the message that you're out and then go an enchant any of your miscellaneous trash gear.

If I ever DO get the PC version, i'll be increasing my Enchanting and Speech asap.

12/11/2011

There seems to be a correlation between fitness and the hardcore gamer. It feels like we spend so much time gaming, that we ignore many other areas of life. Whether it be social or physical, the time we put into our games could be spread out into other activities. I'll be the first to pleading guilty of letting my games *cough-Skyrim-cough* take priority and conveniently forget everything else. Why today, I was busy listening to the rebel leaders talk about the importance of Whiterun instead of hearing the timer go off to let me know that my baked potatoes were done. Every night I make it a point to stop playing at 11 to get a good nights rest and wake up early before work to study or workout; instead I end up playing past 2 and waking up with enough time to run out the door.

I love my younger brother; he's incredibly smart and talented. Able to master anything he puts his mind to, he's unstoppable (like his older brother) when motivated. But right now, he'd rather spend 10+ hours a day just playing games *cough-Skyrim-WoW-cough*. It has been over 4 months since his contract at his last job ended and although that 'economy is tough,' it isn't impossible to get a job. Although people tend to pooh-pooh on job agencies, my friend's contract job ran out last Friday and got a new job (with Kobo, no less) in less than a week!

Everything takes effort. Anything worthwhile requires sacrifice. We're not talking about sacrificing a follower so that you survive a quest. We're talking about diverting our time and resources into something else.

So here comes the reason for the good-looking woman above; exercise is important for all of us. Its hard and requires dedication but isn't impossible. Exercising on a consistent basis doesn't mean we give up our hardcore gamer title (I prefer my gamer-photographer title instead). We don't need to become muscleheads, and abandon gaming (I probably won't ever), we just need to add some variety to what is the spice of life.

Anyways; if you're interested in exercising but don't know where to start, head over to Bodyrock.tv which has a pretty good website. Alot of videos that show you techniques, both beginner and advanced. It doesn't hurt that the people in the videos are easy on the eyes ;)

12/10/2011

Getting mentally prepped for TOR; just finished Star Wars, episodes 4-6... been watching the animated Clone Wars series.. and here are some official vids to keep up going up to the 13th (for early access people) and i'll probably see you (& blog about it) on the 20th!

12/07/2011

I enjoy challenging games. Not necessarily 'hard' games, but ones that provide a challenge.

Per Nerfnow's comic, that is the reason why I don't like WoW; they did a great job catering to those that have never played an mmo before and want to jump in, feel like they can get great loot, but they made it too easy. I see my brother, who granted is able to play any game and master it, but come on, there are people that have so many mounts that there is an actual book to select the one they feel like using. In the 'good ol days' you had your mount and that was it. It elevated you from the crowd; you tamed a dragon and brought it into town, now that was impressive.

I enjoy in Skyrim how creatures level up as you do, so you can't just expect to use certain loopholes in the game to level up and then overpower bandits by your sheer level difference. While you're lvl 25 plus in elven armor.. your bandits may be wearing orcish or even ebony gear now.. much stronger than yours. Even worse if you're leveling non-combat abilities (pure thief), you will be in a world of hurt when needing to fight.

Did you know, you can't just run up point-blank into a dragon and blast spells/shoot arrows at it? It clearly has a defined mind to take a chomp out of you. Maybe the weaker Blood Dragons won't do that, but when you're higher levels, the game plays better and those ancient dragons will eat you and you'll be reloading that fight again.

An efficient and safe way to level your destruction skill:- summon a flame/frost atronach- blast awayIf you take too long, your atronach will turn hostile on you, but I haven't seen it retaliate. This is a much safer way to level your skill (although, very boring) versus fighting strong monsters or alot of weaker monsters.

A safe way to level your restoration skill:- do the College of Winterhold quest where you learn the spell Equillibrium (alteration spell)- the spell is similar to a warlock's spell that switches health for mana- cast it until you have near full mana and nearly depleted health (don't kill yourself!)- then cast a healing spell- you'll be gaining both restoration and alteration skill Once again, a boring way to level skill, but if you're set on leveling particular skills and not wasting contributions to your overall level, it has to be done.

12/04/2011

I've made the right decision: instead of playing Skyrim at the dead of night (and probably ending up accidentally playing til 5...oops!), i've decided just to do this entry instead and provide fantastic fan vids of the music from Skyrim.